Measurement of n- and l-resolved State-selective Charge Exchange in Ar8+ Collision with He

Abstract

The state-resolved capture cross sections for principal n and orbital angular momentum l play an important role in modeling soft X-ray emissions induced by charge exchange for many astrophysical environments. However, the empirical and semiclassical theories used to produce these data of n- and l-resolved state-selective capture have not been well tested. Using the cold target recoil ion momentum spectroscopy apparatus at Fudan University, we perform a series of measurements of Ar8+ ion charge exchange with He in the collision energy range from 1.4 to 20 keV u−1. We find that electrons are mainly captured in the n = 4 state of Ar7+ ions. This agrees with the prediction of the scaling law for n capture. Moreover, the relative cross sections are reported for 4s-, 4p-, 4d-, and 4f-resolved state-selective capture. The often used analytical l distributions in the astrophysical literature are evaluated by comparing to the measurements.